INCHEON — After five days of near misses, persistence finally paid off for Singapore’s 17-strong shooting contingent yesterday, as the men’s 25m standard pistol team of Gai Bin, Nigel Lim and Poh Lip Meng delivered bronze at the Ongnyeon International Shooting Range.

Veteran shooter Gai Bin, 46, fired 567 to finish in eighth spot, while Lim and Poh occupied 11th and 12th spots after shooting 563 and 562, respectively.

Their total score of 1,692 was enough for the Singaporeans to pip South-east Asian rivals Vietnam (1,687) to third spot to clinch the Republic’s first shooting medals in Incheon.

China’s Ding Feng, Jin Yongde and Li Chuanlin claimed the gold with 1,710 points, while hosts South Korea narrowly missed out on gold by three points.

The winning feeling was certainly one to savour for Gai Bin, who has struggled to win medals at major Games after his three-gold haul at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

“I feel very happy and relieved at the same time because I didn’t do so well in previous competitions such as the Commonwealth and Asian Games,” said the shooter, who finished this year’s Commonwealth Games empty-handed.

“The last portion of my shoot was not so good. If I had done well, we could have been in contention for gold or silver. These guys are like my brothers ... I am very happy we won a team medal and it’s not easy.”

Added Poh: “We were expecting it (bronze) based on our scores, but we just kept our focus. We had to get used to the electronic scoring quickly as the manual ones back home are very different. Everybody expected shooting to win something and we didn’t at the Commonwealth Games, so this has paid off for us.”

Yesterday’s result comes after a frustrating Asiad so far for the Republic’s shooters, first with Lim’s sixth-place finish in the men’s 50m pistol on Saturday, before Jasmine Ser was ranked fourth in the women’s 10m air rifle two days later.

But finally landing Singapore’s first medal in shooting at the Incheon Asiad has provided a boost for the remainder of the competition.

Today, 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Ser and Li Yafei are in action in the women’s individual 50m rifle three positions, and Gai Bin and Lim in the men’s individual centre fire pistol.

Said Lim: “We are always trying to prove ourselves, and we are capable of doing something but we just hadn’t delivered until today.”